Tuesday, September 29, 2015

compareFIRST - Singapore's first industry-backed life insurance web aggregator has been "live" coming close to six months now. If you need a refresher on what it is: compareFIRST - What you need to knowYou can check out the website here.

compareFIRST

To test its user-friendliness, and usefulness, we got someone young and out of school not too long ago, who hasn't been working for too long, and does not know much about insurance to test the site and do a review.And here's the feedback:

The website is simple yet very detailed for someone who
doesn’t know anything much about insurances. The FAQ provided a lot of the
questions I had and it was helpful because it answered most of the questions. It
also gave me a better understanding of the different types of insurances. Some
questions that I had were the differences between term life and whole life
insurance, what is life insurance policy and the various insurance and
insurance policies.

However, the downside to this website is that the “Sort
results by:” option cannot be opened with a click, it opens only when you press
and hold for direct purchase products, term life which can be quite a hassle if
I was viewing it on my smartphone.

The website also has a video for people to watch if they
have no clue on how to use the website. It could have been better if it was in
the respective mother tongues because for people who don’t understand English
it would be a hassle.

The “not sure what to search for” answers the consumer’s
question by doing a simple questionnaire which is good for someone who is
unclear of what he or she wants. It gives consumers a better understanding on which
products featured on comparefirst.sg can better meet their needs.

(Mouse over understanding insurance and click on the “Not
sure what to search for?”)

When searching for the different products, it would be
better if the search bar at the top isn’t collapsed by default. Every time I
want to search for a product, I would always have to expand the column.

Also, one is able to compare up to four different options
available which is easier for consumers. There is a search bar that enables you
to search the entire website just by keying in the keywords.

There are articles provided about life insurance, like the
types of life insurance available, what is a life insurance and key questions
to ask when you’re considering a life insurance product.

Having done the comparison on the site, I would have bought
the insurance from the website itself rather than contacting the various
companies to get my insurance policies however the website is just an
information portal thus, the inability to do so.

I would recommend users to use
this site as it is a good platform for those who want to get insurance because
it compares all the local insurance companies in Singapore.

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While it is meant to be an information portal, the biggest issue users will face after reviewing the aggregator is that they will have to make a special effort to purchase - which could be a big challenge for most.